Like feeding sugar cubes to Queensbury, it was time to feed Benjamin his dad jokes, and it was getting out of hand.
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Benjamin, who laughed every time, was also the same Benjamin, who was a little discouraged.
‘In a word, he needed a reality check.’
Of course, it was because Benjamin didn’t take the value of old man gags seriously as a colleague.
At best, you have to make me feel rewarded for showing you my high-quality humor. Even if I put a straw mat in front of Wolfgang, he’d always roll it up and throw it away.
‘I let it slide because I felt sorry for the life he’d led so far where he’d laugh so hard he couldn’t breathe just from dad jokes.’
Benjamin’s dark circles were about to jump rope under his chin.
I heard that he goes beyond overtime and leaves work almost at dawn, but I didn’t know if that was because he was cleaning up dead bodies.
I shook my head, then placed the simple tea and confectionaries on Wolfgang’s desk, without the kettle that was too heavy for me to carry.
Only then did I whisper to Wolfgang, who looked down at me as if he finally realized I was there.
“You didn’t cry because you missed me, did you?”
“….”
“Yes, I know. I’ll pretend you didn’t cry because you’d be embarrassed.”
I set up the refreshments as usual, and continued with my usual routine of ignoring his smirk and muffled laughter.
Wolfgang and Benjamin’s black tea, and my milk.
Wolfgang and Benjamin’s fruit, and cookies. Then my chocolates, and my candy. Was this Wolfgang and Benjamin’s tea time, or was it my snack time? I wanted to start, but Wolfgang wouldn’t leave me alone.
“Eat it.”
I handed the cup to Wolfgang first, and he sipped the tea while he held documents in his other hand.
He didn’t even look at the side dish of fruit.
Similar to how he didn’t like to eat vegetables, he didn’t like eating fruit very much either.
All he looked for and ate was meat. Meat, sometimes seafood, and tea.
‘His childish picky eating really didn’t suit him.’
I looked at him with an implacable expression, then approached Benjamin with the next piece of food, no, snack.
For some reason, whenever he was given a snack, he would say, ‘Prisoner number 9628, private food’, exactly like that. It seemed he felt he had to say.
As I looked at the face of that ordinary company employee who was locked up in the prison of the company, punished with work, and waiting to be released, I felt faint again.
Yes, there’s no point in hating him. I was his first friend, so I’ll hold him dear and keep him with me.
“Mr.Benjamin, Mr.Benjamin.”
I poked a pretty cut of banana with a fork, and stuck it out towards his mouth.
“If you eat this banana, will you fall in love with me?”
“Hahaha!”
Could you see this Duke Wolfgang Bastion? It was a monster that you made.
When I stared at him with accusatory eyes, Wolfgang turned his back on the laughing monster with a banana in his mouth.
Tsk, I clicked my tongue and headed back to my seat.
That’s right. My seat.
At some point, a seat had been created for me in the office, which was desolate except for two desks and documents.
Where was it?
“Excuse me.”
It was right on Wolfgang’s lap.
When was it? I was standing next to him as usual, but my legs hurt, so I asked. “Can I take a break, candidate for father-in-law?”
Then Wolfgang told me to do whatever I wanted, and I really did.
From then on until now, Wolfgang only looked at me as I shamelessly climbed up on his lap, and didn’t tell me to get down.
As expected, people have to be shameless in order to be comfortable in both body and mind. Should I set this as Rule of Life #3?
These days, I had time to study my letters by peeping at the documents from this position every day, but today I had a different purpose.
When I stared up at Wolfgang’s face and twisted my body, his eyes narrowed as he looked down at me.
“If it’s a bathroom, it’s outside.”
“Oh! That’s not it!”
I said it angrily, then realized belatedly, and refined my tone to be gentle.
“It’s not that. Ha. I was trying to express the shy heart of a girl.”
I could feel the gaze that was asking, ‘What’s wrong with your tone?’ but I appealed to him with my shyness.
My cheeks were blushing, and I fluttered my eyelashes.
“Finally, I’m going to meet my husband candidate tomorrow. I’m so nervous with 16 beats…”
“What beat?”
“No, it’s my heart. My heart. I was saying that my heart was beating hard enough to break into 16 pieces.”
Before Wolfgang could ask if there was such a saying in the world, I continued to speak as if I wasn’t interrupted.
“Quickly, father-in-law candidate, I think it’s time to ask you again.”
“What?”
“Will you accept our marriage?”
“No.”
What!
Not only me, but also Benjamin, who was watching with interest, hardened at Wolfgang’s stern answer.
Hey, thanks. But I wasn’t lonely, and I wasn’t alone. I have a place to sleep too.
I bit my lips, then I muttered after I recovered from my smashed mental state.
“…I’m shocked. I was sure you’d fallen for me by now.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“That’s right! I’m sure! You opened up your left ventricle and right atrium.”
As I was talking, Wolfgang’s mouth moved slightly up.
Right, that expression! I didn’t know that there was such a thing, but it was a funny and cute expression!
I didn’t know where the progress between us was, but there definitely was some!
I still didn’t know why, but Wolfgang was definitely generous to me.
Would a child with no status be able to sit on the duke’s lap, eat together, and mess around about everything?
Furthermore, I even begged to marry one of his precious sons.
It didn’t make sense. I knew I would have nothing to say if my neck flew away. I knew, so I pushed it more when it worked.
And Wolfgang accepted me as much as I pushed for it.
So, I thought I had already won his heart. I didn’t expect him to stab me in the back.
When the shock went away, the sulky energy came like a tsunami.
I pouted my lips, and complained, wondering if I was hated.
“You’re mean. You’re so mean. I worked hard. You’re so adamant about saying no. It’s not like I’m marrying my father-in-law candidate.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“It’s not my marriage, so I shouldn’t say yes or no. Whether it’s courtship or permission, the two marriage candidates should take care of it themselves.”
Ah, that’s what he meant? He wasn’t against it, but he didn’t have the right to decide? Do it on our own?
As he stared into my pumpkin-colored eyes, he raised and lowered one of his eyebrows.
“Why are you looking at me like that”
“No, I just couldn’t imagine that my prospective father-in-law would have such common sense…”
“Are you saying you don’t want to get married for a long time?”
“No, that’s not it. It was just a lengthy misunderstanding.”
Hey, you fool. I have to scold him with sweet cookies.
It was regrettable that I didn’t get immediate consent, but it was a major development compared to the time when he laughed at the possibility of it.
At least if I did well, it meant that I had a wide open opportunity, right?
And it was my specialty to be good at everything on my own.
While eating cookies with a lot of crunch, I gave Wolfgang the sweetest and most delicious chocolate cookies as if I was in a good mood.
“Then, I will give you a beautiful daughter-in-law candidate, who can do well all on her own. You’ll see.”
Today, his face rotted with happiness as he ate another cookie.
***
It was a familiar routine now.
I ate with the servants to build friendships, chatted for a while when I encountered Kim or Sarah, and avoided the occasional dispute with Vivi.
Then, when the sun was setting in the evening, I visited the stables as promised.
“Are you sure you don’t mind sleeping here alone?”
I nodded vigorously at Tony’s worries, not knowing how many times it was.
“It’s okay, you don’t look so good, so go get some rest. I’ll call you as soon as something happens.”
“But…”
“Oh, Queensbury is fussing! Hurry up, please.”
I pushed Tony’s back with the excuse that Queensbury needed quiet.
He was going to sleep all night in the barn with me, but he kept looking back as climbed up to the place near the entrance of the stable.
Even so, it was a distance that you could hear right away if I screamed in the barn.
Tony seemed anxious about leaving a child alone, no matter how tired he was. But in my eyes, I was more anxious that he would collapse from exhaustion soon.
‘It’s like he was giving birth to the baby himself.’ Or so the saying goes. That was why Tony was so haggard.
More importantly, the mother, who was about to give birth, hated anyone other than me being around right now.
“He’s gone, Queensbury.”
“Pururu.”
“Does it hurt a lot?”
I sat down by the bedside of Queensbury, who was laying down helplessly.
Certainly, her labor seemed noticeably more painful than during the day.
She was breathing through her nose roughly, and her rib cage rose and fell quickly.
I felt tired and sad just from watching, so I tenderly patted the hot Queensbury’s cheek.
“Cheer up. Do you think the baby will come out? Not yet?”
There was still a long way to go.
After sighing, I pressed on Queensbury’s stomach and wished for it not to hurt.
Hurry up and come out, foal. Don’t bother your mom too much.
‘My holy power isn’t helpful in this respect, either.’
Usually, you’d think of holy power as a ‘healing’ force, but you’d be wrong.
It was more precise to say it was a ‘purifying’ force.
For example, a knife cut couldn’t be healed, but the infection caused by bacteria could be treated at a glance.
Why? Because you could purify the bacteria that caused the infection.
Of course, there was no way to deal with complications, aftereffects, and life expectancy caused by already worsening illnesses. From there, it was in the realm of medicine.
So, holy power was more like a purifying plant with excellent effectiveness.
‘William’s customers would buy children for that exact purpose, and keep them in the corner of their mansions.’
In the case of famous priests, they would boisterously go out to serve, claiming to stop the spread of epidemics along the border.
Or, they could convert the polluted water and soil into something clean and beautiful.
It would have been fine if it was purely a public service, but it was a problem because most of the pilgrimages were shams.
There was no perfect way to show off status in the temple.
‘And as their status went up, the amount of donations that were offered went up as well.’
On the subject of pretending to be the cleanest, in fact, the dirtiest place was the temple.
Of course, I didn’t know where the real temples were, but at least the place where I used to live, or the places I heard about, weren’t that great.
Anyway, back to the point.
‘Thus pain, injury, disability, and death during childbirth were not areas in which holy power could intervene.’
In the end, all I could do for Queensbury today was share my hands and warmth.
“It would be nice if you could sleep. But you can’t sleep cause you’re in labor, right? Shall we talk all night?”
“Pururu.”
“Yes, I like that too.”
I lay flat on the clean straw that was laid out in advance, and prepared to spend a long night with Queensbury.
Oh, come to think of it.
“Where did your husband go? I should at least tear out his hair, no, his mane.”
“Pururu.”
“Behind? Did he go outside to work? That’s no good, why would he leave his wife alone?”
Queensbury seemed to have a lot to say, so she was unusually talkative.
For a long time, she cursed about her husband, who didn’t even know to show his face. Then she changed the subject as if she had warmed up.
“…What? Handsome and kind? You’re the only one who sees? He’s just a little busy at work?”
Queensbury lay back and nodded eagerly.
It didn’t even sound like it.
I frowned and scolded Queensbury.
“Oh, look at you, standing up for your husband again. What are you talking about? You’re saying that you don’t want others to curse at him?”
“Pururu, pururu.”
“I’ll understand when I have a husband? Yes, I know. I’m planning to have one soon.”
“Purun?”
Queensbury was interested in what I had to say, as if I was spilling a secret.
No matter what animal it was, hearing about other people’s love life was fun to them.
I was speechless, but if it helped her forget the pain for a moment, I’d be glad to be the best entertainment.
“What kind of male is he? Well, he’s probably handsome because his genes are excellent.”
Like feeding sugar cubes to Queensbury, it was time to feed Benjamin his dad jokes, and it was getting out of hand.
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Benjamin, who laughed every time, was also the same Benjamin, who was a little discouraged.
‘In a word, he needed a reality check.’
Of course, it was because Benjamin didn’t take the value of old man gags seriously as a colleague.
At best, you have to make me feel rewarded for showing you my high-quality humor. Even if I put a straw mat in front of Wolfgang, he’d always roll it up and throw it away.
‘I let it slide because I felt sorry for the life he’d led so far where he’d laugh so hard he couldn’t breathe just from dad jokes.’
Benjamin’s dark circles were about to jump rope under his chin.
I heard that he goes beyond overtime and leaves work almost at dawn, but I didn’t know if that was because he was cleaning up dead bodies.
I shook my head, then placed the simple tea and confectionaries on Wolfgang’s desk, without the kettle that was too heavy for me to carry.
Only then did I whisper to Wolfgang, who looked down at me as if he finally realized I was there.
“You didn’t cry because you missed me, did you?”
“….”
“Yes, I know. I’ll pretend you didn’t cry because you’d be embarrassed.”
I set up the refreshments as usual, and continued with my usual routine of ignoring his smirk and muffled laughter.
Wolfgang and Benjamin’s black tea, and my milk.
Wolfgang and Benjamin’s fruit, and cookies. Then my chocolates, and my candy. Was this Wolfgang and Benjamin’s tea time, or was it my snack time? I wanted to start, but Wolfgang wouldn’t leave me alone.
“Eat it.”
I handed the cup to Wolfgang first, and he sipped the tea while he held documents in his other hand.
He didn’t even look at the side dish of fruit.
Similar to how he didn’t like to eat vegetables, he didn’t like eating fruit very much either.
All he looked for and ate was meat. Meat, sometimes seafood, and tea.
‘His childish picky eating really didn’t suit him.’
I looked at him with an implacable expression, then approached Benjamin with the next piece of food, no, snack.
For some reason, whenever he was given a snack, he would say, ‘Prisoner number 9628, private food’, exactly like that. It seemed he felt he had to say.
As I looked at the face of that ordinary company employee who was locked up in the prison of the company, punished with work, and waiting to be released, I felt faint again.
Yes, there’s no point in hating him. I was his first friend, so I’ll hold him dear and keep him with me.
“Mr.Benjamin, Mr.Benjamin.”
I poked a pretty cut of banana with a fork, and stuck it out towards his mouth.
“If you eat this banana, will you fall in love with me?”
“Hahaha!”
Could you see this Duke Wolfgang Bastion? It was a monster that you made.
When I stared at him with accusatory eyes, Wolfgang turned his back on the laughing monster with a banana in his mouth.
Tsk, I clicked my tongue and headed back to my seat.
That’s right. My seat.
At some point, a seat had been created for me in the office, which was desolate except for two desks and documents.
Where was it?
“Excuse me.”
It was right on Wolfgang’s lap.
When was it? I was standing next to him as usual, but my legs hurt, so I asked. “Can I take a break, candidate for father-in-law?”
Then Wolfgang told me to do whatever I wanted, and I really did.
From then on until now, Wolfgang only looked at me as I shamelessly climbed up on his lap, and didn’t tell me to get down.
As expected, people have to be shameless in order to be comfortable in both body and mind. Should I set this as Rule of Life #3?
These days, I had time to study my letters by peeping at the documents from this position every day, but today I had a different purpose.
When I stared up at Wolfgang’s face and twisted my body, his eyes narrowed as he looked down at me.
“If it’s a bathroom, it’s outside.”
“Oh! That’s not it!”
I said it angrily, then realized belatedly, and refined my tone to be gentle.
“It’s not that. Ha. I was trying to express the shy heart of a girl.”
I could feel the gaze that was asking, ‘What’s wrong with your tone?’ but I appealed to him with my shyness.
My cheeks were blushing, and I fluttered my eyelashes.
“Finally, I’m going to meet my husband candidate tomorrow. I’m so nervous with 16 beats…”
“What beat?”
“No, it’s my heart. My heart. I was saying that my heart was beating hard enough to break into 16 pieces.”
Before Wolfgang could ask if there was such a saying in the world, I continued to speak as if I wasn’t interrupted.
“Quickly, father-in-law candidate, I think it’s time to ask you again.”
“What?”
“Will you accept our marriage?”
“No.”
What!
Not only me, but also Benjamin, who was watching with interest, hardened at Wolfgang’s stern answer.
Hey, thanks. But I wasn’t lonely, and I wasn’t alone. I have a place to sleep too.
I bit my lips, then I muttered after I recovered from my smashed mental state.
“…I’m shocked. I was sure you’d fallen for me by now.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“That’s right! I’m sure! You opened up your left ventricle and right atrium.”
As I was talking, Wolfgang’s mouth moved slightly up.
Right, that expression! I didn’t know that there was such a thing, but it was a funny and cute expression!
I didn’t know where the progress between us was, but there definitely was some!
I still didn’t know why, but Wolfgang was definitely generous to me.
Would a child with no status be able to sit on the duke’s lap, eat together, and mess around about everything?
Furthermore, I even begged to marry one of his precious sons.
It didn’t make sense. I knew I would have nothing to say if my neck flew away. I knew, so I pushed it more when it worked.
And Wolfgang accepted me as much as I pushed for it.
So, I thought I had already won his heart. I didn’t expect him to stab me in the back.
When the shock went away, the sulky energy came like a tsunami.
I pouted my lips, and complained, wondering if I was hated.
“You’re mean. You’re so mean. I worked hard. You’re so adamant about saying no. It’s not like I’m marrying my father-in-law candidate.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“It’s not my marriage, so I shouldn’t say yes or no. Whether it’s courtship or permission, the two marriage candidates should take care of it themselves.”
Ah, that’s what he meant? He wasn’t against it, but he didn’t have the right to decide? Do it on our own?
As he stared into my pumpkin-colored eyes, he raised and lowered one of his eyebrows.
“Why are you looking at me like that”
“No, I just couldn’t imagine that my prospective father-in-law would have such common sense…”
“Are you saying you don’t want to get married for a long time?”
“No, that’s not it. It was just a lengthy misunderstanding.”
Hey, you fool. I have to scold him with sweet cookies.
It was regrettable that I didn’t get immediate consent, but it was a major development compared to the time when he laughed at the possibility of it.
At least if I did well, it meant that I had a wide open opportunity, right?
And it was my specialty to be good at everything on my own.
While eating cookies with a lot of crunch, I gave Wolfgang the sweetest and most delicious chocolate cookies as if I was in a good mood.
“Then, I will give you a beautiful daughter-in-law candidate, who can do well all on her own. You’ll see.”
Today, his face rotted with happiness as he ate another cookie.
***
It was a familiar routine now.
I ate with the servants to build friendships, chatted for a while when I encountered Kim or Sarah, and avoided the occasional dispute with Vivi.
Then, when the sun was setting in the evening, I visited the stables as promised.
“Are you sure you don’t mind sleeping here alone?”
I nodded vigorously at Tony’s worries, not knowing how many times it was.
“It’s okay, you don’t look so good, so go get some rest. I’ll call you as soon as something happens.”
“But…”
“Oh, Queensbury is fussing! Hurry up, please.”
I pushed Tony’s back with the excuse that Queensbury needed quiet.
He was going to sleep all night in the barn with me, but he kept looking back as climbed up to the place near the entrance of the stable.
Even so, it was a distance that you could hear right away if I screamed in the barn.
Tony seemed anxious about leaving a child alone, no matter how tired he was. But in my eyes, I was more anxious that he would collapse from exhaustion soon.
‘It’s like he was giving birth to the baby himself.’ Or so the saying goes. That was why Tony was so haggard.
More importantly, the mother, who was about to give birth, hated anyone other than me being around right now.
“He’s gone, Queensbury.”
“Pururu.”
“Does it hurt a lot?”
I sat down by the bedside of Queensbury, who was laying down helplessly.
Certainly, her labor seemed noticeably more painful than during the day.
She was breathing through her nose roughly, and her rib cage rose and fell quickly.
I felt tired and sad just from watching, so I tenderly patted the hot Queensbury’s cheek.
“Cheer up. Do you think the baby will come out? Not yet?”
There was still a long way to go.
After sighing, I pressed on Queensbury’s stomach and wished for it not to hurt.
Hurry up and come out, foal. Don’t bother your mom too much.
‘My holy power isn’t helpful in this respect, either.’
Usually, you’d think of holy power as a ‘healing’ force, but you’d be wrong.
It was more precise to say it was a ‘purifying’ force.
For example, a knife cut couldn’t be healed, but the infection caused by bacteria could be treated at a glance.
Why? Because you could purify the bacteria that caused the infection.
Of course, there was no way to deal with complications, aftereffects, and life expectancy caused by already worsening illnesses. From there, it was in the realm of medicine.
So, holy power was more like a purifying plant with excellent effectiveness.
‘William’s customers would buy children for that exact purpose, and keep them in the corner of their mansions.’
In the case of famous priests, they would boisterously go out to serve, claiming to stop the spread of epidemics along the border.
Or, they could convert the polluted water and soil into something clean and beautiful.
It would have been fine if it was purely a public service, but it was a problem because most of the pilgrimages were shams.
There was no perfect way to show off status in the temple.
‘And as their status went up, the amount of donations that were offered went up as well.’
On the subject of pretending to be the cleanest, in fact, the dirtiest place was the temple.
Of course, I didn’t know where the real temples were, but at least the place where I used to live, or the places I heard about, weren’t that great.
Anyway, back to the point.
‘Thus pain, injury, disability, and death during childbirth were not areas in which holy power could intervene.’
In the end, all I could do for Queensbury today was share my hands and warmth.
“It would be nice if you could sleep. But you can’t sleep cause you’re in labor, right? Shall we talk all night?”
“Pururu.”
“Yes, I like that too.”
I lay flat on the clean straw that was laid out in advance, and prepared to spend a long night with Queensbury.
Oh, come to think of it.
“Where did your husband go? I should at least tear out his hair, no, his mane.”
“Pururu.”
“Behind? Did he go outside to work? That’s no good, why would he leave his wife alone?”
Queensbury seemed to have a lot to say, so she was unusually talkative.
For a long time, she cursed about her husband, who didn’t even know to show his face. Then she changed the subject as if she had warmed up.
“…What? Handsome and kind? You’re the only one who sees? He’s just a little busy at work?”
Queensbury lay back and nodded eagerly.
It didn’t even sound like it.
I frowned and scolded Queensbury.
“Oh, look at you, standing up for your husband again. What are you talking about? You’re saying that you don’t want others to curse at him?”
“Pururu, pururu.”
“I’ll understand when I have a husband? Yes, I know. I’m planning to have one soon.”
“Purun?”
Queensbury was interested in what I had to say, as if I was spilling a secret.
No matter what animal it was, hearing about other people’s love life was fun to them.
I was speechless, but if it helped her forget the pain for a moment, I’d be glad to be the best entertainment.
“What kind of male is he? Well, he’s probably handsome because his genes are excellent.”
